Cop winding machine with independent winding points



May 20, 1941. w. REINERS ETAL,

COP WINDING MACHINE WITH INDEPENDENT WINDING POINTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 13, 1939 May 26, 1941. w. REINERS ET AL COP WINDING MACHINE WITH INDEPENDENT WINDING POINTS Filed May 13, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 20, 1941 COP WINDING MACHINE WITH INDE- I PENDENT WINDING POINTS Wilhehn Relners and Gustav Kahlisch, Gladbach- Rheydt, Germany,

assignors to W. Schlafhorst & 00., Munioh-Gladbach, Germany, a corporation of Germany lApplication May 13, 1939, Serial No. 273,479 In Germany May 24, 1938 6 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved construction of a cop winding machine with independent winding units at which the thread is wound on a tube and at which, when the cop is finish wound, the ejection of the cop, the severing of the thread, the supply of a new tube and the recommencement of the winding take place automatically, and at which the tube magazine is arranged outside the winding field and is emptied, by means of an automatically controlled tube feeding device operating between the magazine and the winding unit. The term winding field refers to the space within which .the thread is being guided to the tube with a traversing motion and wound upon the tube. Thus, an unobstructed and easily accessible winding field is obtained, because the operator can always see all the winding points of a copping rail in spite of the tube magazines, and in the event of irregularities and especially in the event of thread breakage, is not hampered, in carrying out the operations necessary for rety'mg the thread ends, by the magazines and the other auxiliary mechanisms for the automatic changing of the tubes.

In cop winding machines with axially shiftable spindles and stationary traversing thread guides for traversing the thread, such as cam cylinders, this unobstructed and easily accessible construction is attained according to the invention by arranging the magazine so that its front boundary lies in the same, or approximately the same plane with the rear boundary of the traversing thread guide. As the portion of the cop actually finished is in this instance shifted towards the rear, it is no longer necessary in arranging the magazine to take into consideration this portion of the total length of the cop, so that the magazine, in spite of being stationary, can be arranged considerably farther forward, with the result that the charging of the magazine by hand is facilitated, or the constructional arrangement of a mechanism for conveying the empty tubes automatically to the magazines is simplified.

The thread traverse may be effected by means of cam cylinders having a guide groove extending only in one direction, with slanting feed of the thread to the cam cylinder to cause the return movement, as has been proposed before.

If a feeler element isused forprogressively shifting thespindle,for example a so-called feelerwheel, this can also retain its position relative to the lifter traversing device (the cam cylinder), so that it remains within the unobstructed and accessible portion of the winding field. According to the invention the control work to be effected by the feeler, and hitherto transmitted mechanically, is also simplified and facilitated in that the mechanical action causing the progressive axial movement of the spindle is controlled by the feeler through the intermediary of an electric current. The construction itself can also be simplified according to the invention in that for taking up the control impulse no rotating parts are used at the winding point with the exception of the feeler wheel, the control current being released through the intermediary of a photo-electric cell and a relay.

In another construction for putting this idea I into practice the feeler itself is relieved from all mechanical work including the rotary movement of the feeler wheel, in that, according to the invention, changes in the boundries of the growing cop, or of the mechanical parts cooperating in the building of the cop are used as feeler, the source of light and the photo-electric cell being so related by means of a system of lenses, that the position of the beam of light rays is such that at the instant when a control impulse is needed the photo-electric cell is either shaded or illuminated and instantly transmits the control impulse.

In this manner the solution of the problem of producing an unobstructed and accessible copping rail with independently operating winding units is considerably improved in that, in spite of the large number of controlling means necessary and of the presence of separate magazines, the depth of the machine and also the range of the winding work proper can be made relatively small, and in that the controlling means for imparting the impulse for the axial spindle displacement are also considerably simplified.

Several embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which similarly operating parts bear the same references, where necessary provided with an alphabetical sumx.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 shows a single winding unit partly in side elevation and partly in section,

Fig. 2 is a front view of a single winding unit,

Fig. 3 shows a single winding unit in section on line III-III of Fig. 1 and viewed from the rear,

Fig. 4 shows'in part front elevation a winding unit in section on line IVIV of Fig. 1,

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of a spindle and one form of photo-electric sensing means for controlling the building movement,

Fig. 6 is a horizontal section showing a spindle with modified photo-electric sensing means for controlling the building movement and the termination of winding, and

Fig. 7 is a vertical section on the line 11 of Fig. 6.

The general construction of the winding units of full automatic cop winding machines is known. Therefore, only certain parts which are particularly important for the understanding of the invention and for the operation of these parts are to be explained in addition to the novel features.

The drive is derived from a shaft I common for several winding units, through the intermediary of a driving wheel 2, a disc 3 and gear wheels 20I, 202 and 203. The gear wheel 202 transmits the movement to a. cam cylinder 25a. and the gear wheel 203 to a winding spindle 4a. The cylinder shaft 204 and the spindle 4a. are journalled in correspondingly constructed parts of the frame wall 5.

The building up of the cop 9 on the tube I is effected in known manner by spindle means including a spindle flange 2H and a. tail stock 5, which can be. pulled forward by its suitably constructed end 1 for the ejection of the cop and the introduction, of an empty tube. A stationary thread guide Ila guides the thread to the cam cylinder 250. A shaft 232 carrying bearing arms 233 and 8 for the spindle 4a and tail stock 8, respectively, is guided for longitudinal movement in bearings of the machine frame 5. The shaft 232 is connected by an arm 23I to a sleeve I2 slidably mounted on a screw shaft I 30;. The screw shaft I3a is rotatably mounted in bearings I la and Ia and serves to impart to the sleeve I2 the progressive movements required to build the cop, in a manner to be described.

The cutting out of the drive in the event of thread breakage is also effected in known manner by a faller 23 oscillatable about a shaft 22, this faller carrying on its free end a guide wheel 24 and acting on a small control lever 20 in the event of thread breakage.

The engagement and disengagement of the individual control operations are effected by cam discs of a kind previously used in automatic cop winding machines. These cam discs for each winding unit are united in a set, which is driven through the intermediary of a friction clutch on its shaft 39 by a shaft 39a common to all winding units. When the desired length of cop has been attained, the disengagement is effected, as soon as an abutment pin 3| a strikes against a two-armed lever 32a, 32b, through the intermediary of contacts 228, 229, which will be described later, and through the intermediary of relay 221 acting on a two-armed lever 33a, 3411.

For severing the thread from the finished cop serve shears 41 whose movable arm 41a is actuated by one of two rocking arms 82 which serve to swing the empty tube into the winding position between spindle 4a and tail stock 6. This arm 62 has fixed to it a plate 410 in whose slot 41b 9. projection of arm 41a of the shears engages. The thread drawn along by the ejected cop enters the shears when the cop itself, liberated from the winding unit by means of the control cam disc 52a through the intermediary of a lever 5I, 52, in a manner to be described, drops into the catching chute 3 or onto the conveyor band 3| 2. After the winding unit has been discharged a fresh tube I0 is swung in, the arm 52 being swung to the left by means of the shaft 54 rocked by the corresponding cam disc.

The fresh tube I0 is brought from the magazine 88 by a separate tube carrier forming part of a transfer device for feeding tubes from the magazine to the winding unit, the other part being constituted by the rocking arms 62 and their associated parts to be described presently. A horizontally shiftable carrier 82a for a feed disc 82b is connected by a connecting link 85b with a lever 85a actuated by the corresponding cam disc through the intermediary of a rod 88. In front of the feed disc 82b there is a trough 2, in which the empty tube lowermost in the magazine 88, is caught on being released. This empty tube is moved by feed disk 82b forward out of the trough 2 into a trough 2 I 2 which is fixed on the free end of the levers 62. An inclined stationary trough 2I3 guides the empty tube as it passes from the trough 2 into the trough 2I2. The empty tube I0 lowermost in the magazine 98, before its discharge into the trough 2| I, rests on a catch plate fixed on the arm of a V-shaped lever 80, 8|. During the return movement of the feed disc 82b the bevel of the projection 11b formed thereon presses upwards the arm 11a of a bell crank lever 11a, 18, with the result that the arm 18 turns the V-shaped lever 80, 8I in clockwise direction by means of a control slot 19 formed in its end in which engages a pin on the lever arm 8 I. Thus, the catch plate is swung out of the magazine 98 so that the lowermost tube can drop freely into the trough 2| I, whereas the following tubes are held back in the magazine by a supporting plate fixed on the arm 8| which is swung into the magazine as the catch plate on the arm 80 swings out.

The impulses for initiating the different control movements are imparted by electric contacts. As source of current an ordinary battery is indicated. The pole m of this battery is grounded to the machine frame by a wire 12. The different control relays are also grounded by wires 0. For the sake of clarity the branch points of the lines leading to the battery pole e are designated by the letters 1, g, h, i, k and l.

The drive is cut out by a relay 201, which interrupts the driving connection to the driving disc 2 through the intermediary of a two-armed lever 208, against the action of a weight 209 and of a spring 2I0. In the event of thread breakage the cutting out is effected by the lever 20 closing the contacts 205, 206 with the result that current flows from the distributor points 1 over is to the relay 201. The same procedure takes place when, under the influence of the corresponding cam disc, the contact MI, 242 is closed 'by the control lever 240, when the current reaches the distribution point is from the distribution points g, it instead of from the distribution point Z.

When an empty tube has been swung in by means of the arms 82, the driving connection to the shaft I is automatically established, and the building up of the cop on the foot of the tube commences, the thread being guided by means of the cam cylinder 25a. The sleeve I2, at this moment, is on the right end of the spindle I3a in the example illustrated. As soon as the cop has attained the desired maximum diameter, the feeler wheel 2I5 is set in rotation. On the shaft carrying the feeler wheel 2 I 5 (Fig. 4) a small cam disc 2 I6 is mounted and in rotating closes a contact 2I1, 2I8. Thus current isfed to the relay 2I9 (Figs. 1 and 3) which turns the ratchet wheel 225 by means of pawls 224 through the inter- 'mediary of the relay armature 220 and bell crank the ratchet wheel 225 is transmitted to the spindle I31: and, while the pawl 49 is engaged, also to the sleeve 12. Consequently, the rod 232 and the winding spindle 4a shift towards the left with the sleeve l2 in the example illustrated.

When the cop 9 has attained the desired length,

the pin 3la fixed on the right end of the rod 232 engages under the two-armed lever 32a, 32b and swings this lever in clockwise direction and thus closes the contacts 226, 229. The relay 221 thus excited by means of the two-armed lever 33a, 34a, pulls the shift wedge out of its guide in the set of cam discs, with the result that a connection is established in known manner between the'set of cam discsand a gear wheel keyed on the shaft 36. By the rotation of the cam discs not only the above mentioned control lever 24!] for cutting out the drive but also the levers 243 and 246 become operative. The lever 243 closes the contact 244, 245 with the result that the relay 236 receives current and pulls the pawl 49 out of en-' gagement with the spindle l3a. Consequently,

the sleeve I2 is moved forward under the action of the spring 256 and also the completed cop together with the winding spindle, the thread being wound around the cop and, owing to the idle run of the spindle, the thread is held by a few additional windings on the foot of the tube. At the same time, however, the two-armed lever 52 comes within the range of the cam disc 52a during the forward movement of the spindle 4a and of the rod 85b, with the result that the tail stock is pulled back and the finished cop is ejected in the manner above described. Owing to the rotation of disc 66b the lever 63a is no longer supported and is pulled down by the spring 631) with the result that the shaft 64 is turned in anticlockwise direction and a fresh tube is swung into the winding point by means of the arms 52.

During the operation of the control cam discs the feeler wheel is swung outby the control lever 246 through the intermediary of the contacts 241, 248 or of the relay 25! This relay pulls the lever 252 downwards against the action of the spring 253 with the result that the lever 255 (Fig. 4) loses its support 254 and thus enables the shaft 256 to rotate in anti-clockwise direction. The shaft 256, which is now under the influence of the spring 251, carries levers 258. The bearing arm 266 for the feeler wheel can be fixed to the levers 256 by means of a set screw 26l. According to the position of the bearing arm 26!! relatively to the levers 258 the feeler wheel inclines more or less towards the right when the support 254 engages under the lever 255, with the result that the thickness of the cop is adjusted in known manner.

Instead of the contacts 2H, 216, the feeler desired size, the thread winding thereon effects a sufllcient shadowing of the cell 264 to short circuit the control current for the ratchet relay 2l6 by interrupting the current in a relay (not shown). Therefore, as soon as the part a: is darkened, the ratchet relay 2l9 is excited and rendered operative.

In a similar manner other mechanical control operations of the cop winding machine can be photo-electrically initiated. If, for example, the driving flange 2 is tapered at its rear edge 2140, (Fig. 7) or provided with a small projection and the light cone of a lamp 263a is projected onto a photo-electric cell 264a through this point, a control impulse will be imparted by the photo cell at the moment when the winding spindle 4a arrives in its rearmost position when the desired length of cop has been reached, and this impulse can act on the trip relay 221 by means of a relay (not shown)v and consequently bring the set of control discs into operation.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a cop winding machine, a machine frame and a bank of winding units thereon, each comprising spindle means for supporting a cop tube, mounted in the machine frame for rotary and I axial movement, with its axis extending from wheel 2 l5, according to the construction shown in v Fig. 5, influences during its rotation a photoelectric cell 264 by means of apertures 262, whereby the cell is illuminated by a source of light 263.

When a beam of rays passes through an aperture the cell 264 excites a control relay (not shown) which in turn supplies current to ratchet relay In the construction illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7 no mechanical feeler is required for imparting.

an impulse for the axial displacement of the winding spindle 4a. The light cone of the lamp 263 is here narrowed by a lens system 265, 266 to such an extent that, when the cop attains the the front toward the rear of the machine frame; traversing thread guide means mounted in a fixed location on the machine frame adjacent said spindle means; and builder means for imparting a progressive axial movement to said spindle means; a tube magazine for each winding unit mounted on the machine frame outside of the winding field within which the thread is being traversed and wound on the tubes, each tube magazine being positioned with its front boundary in a\ plane passing approximately through the rear part of said traversing thread guide means; and means for transferring tubes from each magazine to its associated spindle means. 2. In a cop winding machine, a machine frame and a bank of winding units thereon, each comprising spindle means for supporting a cop tube, mounted in the machine frame for rotary and axial movement, with its axis extending from the front toward the rear of the machine frame; traversing thread guide means mounted in a fixed location on the machine frame adjacent said spindle means; builder means forimparting a progressive axial movement tosaid spindle means adapted to move a tube thereon from a position in'which its rear end is opposite said thread guide means to a position in which its front end is opposite said thread guide means; and means for restoring said spindle means to said first position; a tube magazine for each winding unit mounted on the machine frame outside of the winding field within which the thread is being traversed and wound on the tubes, each tube magazine being positioned with its front boundary in a plane passing approxivmately through the rear part of said traversing direction of the axis of said rotary supporting means, said builder means including an electrically operated actuating device, and sensing means controlling said electrically operated actu ating device arranged to be operatively influenced by the thread accumulating on the nose of the growing cop.

4. In a cop winding machine, rotary supporting means for supporting and rotating a winding body of thread to be built up into the form of a cop, traversing thread guide means adjacent said rotary supporting means, builder means for moving the growing cop relatively to said traversing thread guide means progressively in the direction of the axis of said rotary supporting means, said builder means including an electrically operated actuating device controlled by a circuit including a photo-electric cell, means for directing a beam of light toward said photo-electric cell, and sensing means controlling said beam of light arranged to be operatively influenced by the thread accumulating on the nose of the growing cop.

5. In a cop winding machine, rotary supporting means for supporting andlrotating a winding body of thread to be built up into the form of a cop, traversing thread guide means adjacent said rotary supporting means, builder means for moving the growing cop relatively to said traversing thread guide means progressively in the direction of the axis of said rotary supporting means, said builder means including an electrically operated actuating device controlled by a circuit including a photo-electric cell, means for directing a beam of light. toward said photo-electric cell, said last means being positioned so that said beam of light will be intercepted repeatedly as the thread accumulates, to cause said builder means to move the growing cop.

6. In a cop winding machine, rotary supporting means for supporting and rotating a winding body of thread to be built up into the form of a cop, traversing thread guide means adjacent said rotary supporting means, builder means for imparting a relative movement to the growing cop and said traversing thread guide means in a direction parallel to the axis of said rotary supporting means, means for releasing finished cops from said rotary supporting means, said releasing means comprising an electrically operated device controlled by a circuit including a photo-electric cell, and means for projecting a beam of light toward said photo-electric cell along a path which will be intercepted by a part moved by said builder means when the cop attains a prescribed length.

' WILHELM REINERS.

GUSTAV KAHLISCH. 

